Free Republic

The Minneapolis Star Tribune investigates independent political spending over the last few election cycles. The results are stark, but won’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention: A Star Tribune analysis of ­campaign finance records found that just three dozen individuals or entities have contributed more than $27 million to political action and independent expenditure committees over the past three election cycles. The analysis shows those donations heavily favored Democrats. Unless that trend is reversed, Republicans could find themselves at a disadvantage heading into the 2014 elections…. No kidding. One union — the powerful ­Education Minnesota teachers union — poured...

"Who’s on first?" "I don't know!" "Third base." It was a great Abbot and Costello skit, maybe their signature moment that younger generations may never have heard of. It was a skit about the players on a baseball team, and their unusual names. It was really funny. (America needs an Abbot and Costello now, a duo who can bring some humor from day to day life to a nation filled with disappointment.) Well I ran into the same kind of skit when I tried to find out if there was a Tea Party organization in my local area. When I...

Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate has had one prior TV show. Now it has been announced that Palin will be hosting a Sportsman Channel original series in 2014. There are many who do not think that this is a good idea, but here are 5 reasons that Sarah Palin should do another TV show. 1. Working on a television show would keep Palin busy and away from politics. This may sound good for those who believe that Palin should not be involved in politics in any manner what so ever. While a vice presidential candidate, Palin received a...

Democrats have justifiably rejoiced in the divisions within the Republican Party which hamper its ability to speak with one voice and act with unity of purpose. The tea party faction within the GOP, once an unalloyed good that propelled the party to electoral victory in 2010, has been more of a headache than a boon ever since. The conservative faction of the Grand Old Party is often credited with robbing the party of electoral victories, torpedoing bipartisan legislative deals, and elevating gaffe-prone voices that force the GOP’s moderates to adopt a perpetual defensive crouch. The temptation for Democrats to partake...

Yesterday we noted the precipitous drop in support for Obama among one of his stool legs, Harvard Survey: Obama and Obamacare push Millennials support off cliff It gets worse. There is a certain poetic justice in the latest Gallup poll of presidential support. Obama’s support has dropped the most among poor Hispanics and Non-Whites versus one year ago. President Barack Obama’s job approval rating averaged 41% in November, down 12 percentage points from 53% last December, his high-water mark since his first year in office. Hispanics’ approval has dropped 23 points over the last 12 months, the most among major...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131122/NEWS09/311220100/?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Editor’s note: Below is the video and transcript of the panel discussion “2014: And the Future of the Republican Party,” which took place at the Freedom Center’s 2013 Restoration Weekend. The event was held November 14th-17th at The Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Florida. 2014: And the Future of the Republican Party from DHFC on Vimeo. Ralph Reed: Thanks so much. When I was elected state party chairman in Georgia in 2002, we had not elected a Republican governor in my state in 134 years. And in fact, if you go back to the time since the first Europeans landed...

Don't let the RINO's and Globalists control the discussion, let's start talking about a Palin Presidency!America, we don't need to talk about the non-starter governor from New Jersey! The ruling elite have selected him. He fits their plans. Should Hillary get the nomination she would wipe the floor with him. Her experience, both in Washington and in world affairs would literally dwarf the overweight Republican liberal from another mob state, this time New Jersey! The media would turn on him instantly. No, this is when Americans need to start talking about a Palin Presidency! Sarah won my heart when she...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There's a fight brewing and it could get ugly. In one corner is the Republican Party. And in the other ... the Republican Party. The stakes could not be higher. The GOP has failed to get a majority of Americans to vote for its presidential candidates in five of the last six elections. And Tuesday night's gubernatorial races -- a win in New Jersey and loss in Virginia -- sent confusing signals, at best, about where the party is headed. The fight spilled out into the open in a race for Alabama's 1st Congressional District, with two Republicans the face...

A lot of people are pronouncing the tea party movement dead after Tuesday’s election results. Goodbye and good riddance. The tea party movement was fun for a while. But before long it was taken over by know-it-alls and knuckleheads. If you doubt that, consider all of those partiers who like to say that the "tea" in "tea party" stands for "Taxed Enough Already." This is what is known as a "backronym." A backronym is formed when someone takes a perfectly good English word and tries to treat it as if it were an acronym. Every time I mention the slang...

A big win in a big blue state — there are few things that make sweeter music for the fractured Republican Party these days. But many political observers say there is even more to what happened tonight than that. Last year, Chris Christie was elected chairman of the Republican Governors Association and he officially takes over that post in Arizona in 15 days. It’s a position with a high national profile, money to spread around and a bully pulpit. So, in way, Christie’s power just doubled. Friends of Christie and people who have watched him in action the past year...

In the coming two to four years, the Republicans seem ready to engage in a battle royal for the soul of their party. And it sure will be ugly. It looks like a war between the Backward Caucus and the usual Conservative Caucus. Forget the moderate Republicans; most of them were put out to pasture long ago. Parties have seen battles between factions since the founding of the republic: the Whigs, the Bull Moose Party, conservative Democrats, liberal Republicans — plenty of splinter groups to go around. Conservatives took over the Republican Party in the 1970s and northern liberal Republicans...

Dude, they’re feeling it. The RINOs are ready to charge. Assuming they’re successful and a bunch of tea-party incumbents get bounced from the House, it’s pretty much third-party time for grassroots conservatives, right? From Alabama to Alaska, the center-right, business-oriented wing of the Republican Party is gearing up for a series of skirmishes that it hopes can prevent the 2014 midterm election from turning into another missed opportunity. This will not be a coordinated operation. It will be messy, ugly, and prone to backfiring. And if the comeback succeeds, it will be in fits and starts, most likely culminating in...

Hot Air’s Allahpundit and Erika Johnsen have both documented a growing movement to boot Tea Party members of Congress over the next two election cycles. It seems that the business community is behind this conspiracy; horrified over the fact that a rather significant proportion of Republicans in Washington were willing to roll the dice on default. In the aftermath of the government shutdown, which was highly enjoyable, the Republican establishment is striking back – and one of their targets in the Senate is Mike Lee. [In Utah,] prominent Republicans and local business executives are openly discussing the possibility of mounting...

Please join Senator Lindsey Graham for an ice cream social TOMORROW at 3 p.m. (Tuesday, October 22) at Besto (1606 N. Main Street) in Anderson! All ages are welcome, so please stop by after school with the whole family to visit with Senator Graham. Free ice cream will be served until 3:45 p.m. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to tyson@lindseygraham.com or call 803-748-0300. Senator Graham hopes you can stop by for fellowship and a cone of your favorite ice cream!

If a Democrat wins in Virginia, Chris Christie wins in New Jersey........ The polls indicate so called "moderate democrat" will get redstate Virginia, and so called "moderate republican" will survive in a bluestate.

The Republican Party as we knew it is dead. No longer are they going to compete in any serious way in national elections. And while they might be able to win state races and gerrymandered congressional seats, they will no longer be able to play on the big stage because of how they’ve behaved for the past five years under President Obama. It didn’t have to be this way. They could’ve learned from the shutdowns of 1995 and 1996, and taken a more moderate approach to the Obama years. They could have condemned the racist birthers or those in their...

The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, has a curious habit of pulling despairing faces when marching his divided troops into battle. As he marched them back again on Wednesday, exhausted and bedraggled by their failed attempt to hold President Obama to ransom over his healthcare reforms, there is much of the same eye-rolling that characterised the start of their reluctant campaign. “We fought the good fight. We just didn’t win,” he told a radio interviewer. But not all Republicans think they can shrug off the past two weeks just as easily. Moderate senators Lindsey Graham and...

Republican donors were horrified in November after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns for president and Congress with nothing to show for it. A year later they’re appalled by how little has changed, angered by the behavior of Republican lawmakers during a string of legislative battles this year capped by the shutdown, and searching for answers. In conversation after conversation, donors express growing frustration with the party and the constellation of outside groups they’ve been bankrolling. After getting squeezed last year by an array of campaign committees, party committees and disparate super PACs, many of them are still...

Republicans have plenty of reasons to dislike Obamacare already, but they haven’t focused on one that could affect them in 2014 and beyond: anyone signing up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act will also have a chance to register to vote. Before folks start accusing Democrats of engaging in a vast left-wing conspiracy, it’s worth noting this quirk stems from the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (better known as the “Motor Voter” law, because it allowed all Americans to register to vote while renewing their driver’s license). According to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesman Brian Cook,...